Reviewing the literature published between 1977 and July 1984, this review is the second part of a report on the literature of marine natural products that will update the author's 1977 review. The first part of the report covered the literature published between 1977 and October 1983 concerning metabolites of marine algae and herbivorous marine molluscs, and contained an overview of the subjects to be reviewed. During the reporting period there have appeared a number of reviews that duplicate parts of this Report. Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry, Section B, for 1979 contained a section on marine natural products and volume 1 of Aliphatic and Related Natural Product Chemistry included a chapter on aliphatic marine natural products, but neither series provided continued coverage. Volumes 2 to 5 of 'Marine Natural Products' have contained several chapters pertinent to this report. Detailed reviews of sterols of invertebrates, terpenoids from coelenterates, nitrogenous pigments in marine invertebrates, chemotaxonomy of sponges, and saponins of echinoderms are directly pertinent to this report while the reviews of marine carotenoids, diterpenoids, phenolic substances, marine indoles, bioluminescence of marine organisms, biosynthesis of marine metabolites, and bioactive marine polymers all contain material on metabolites of marine invertebrates. Reviews of halogenated marine natural products and antimicrobial metabolites from marine organisms all contain relevant material. There have been a number of articles that highlight individual projects and/or limited geographical areas as well as very general articles for the non-specialist, but these provide a very limited coverage of the field.